


To be a Country

by Phantom_Ice



Series: To Be... Hetalia Character Fills [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Coup d'état, Fever, Gen, Historical Accuracy, Historical Hetalia, Historical References, I repeat, Minor violence involving a child, Non-Graphic Violence, Sealand had a coup, Starvation, This coup actually happened guys, how is that not already a tag?, the only thing i really added was Sealand himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 19:59:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17331395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantom_Ice/pseuds/Phantom_Ice
Summary: 02. Least Favorite CharacterSealand undergoes his first trial as a real-life country!It's scarier than he had thought it would be. But he knows his people can overcome anything, no matter what that jerky mainland has to say!





	To be a Country

**Author's Note:**

> Sealand had a real coup d'etat with its first royal family. 0.o  
> I am still kind of shook.   
> And, honestly, I have a new appreciation for Sealand after writing this. XD

“Please don’t go!” He tightened his grip on Prince Bates’ jacket, signaling his intent even while his words were swallowed by the helicopter’s roar. He could feel his eyes getting wet, but told himself it was from the wind. He hoped that’s what the prince regent saw too. 

The man turned and put a hand on the young boy’s head, having to bend a bit to do so. The lines of age were starting to show on his face, and the sides of his head were grey instead of brown, but Sealand still thought he was as amazing as the day they meet (the day Sealand had appeared as a small toddler on this strange new word, already knowing who and what he was). 

“Now, Sealand, we talked about this,” he shouted over the wind. “We won’t be long, and you’ll have Michael and Alexander with you,” he promised, gesturing to the brown haired twenty-five-year-old man waiting just outside the ring of wind and the older man who was standing even farther against the railing. 

“But, but…”

Princess Joan bent down in front of him as well and gave him one of her pretty smiles. She was just about the most beautiful person in the world. He had only met about ten people in his ten-year life, but he was sure this was true anyway. Her blonde hair was pulled back in an updo that she currently kept steady with a smooth hand, managing to look as elegant as ever. Sealand knew she worried about him since he looked only five years old, but he was really ten and that was plenty old enough to take care of himself. So with one last sniffle, he rubbed his arm against his face. 

“Okay. Have fun. Come back soon!” He threw them both into a hug as well as he could manage, then he was waving them off as they entered the helicopter, Prince Bates giving Princess Joan a hand to escort her.

He waved for the entire time he could see the machine until Prince Michael walked up and put a hand on his head. Sealand looked around to see that the Prime Minister had already left, but the prince was still here. That was okay. Sealand hadn’t known the Prime Minister for long and he wasn’t as fun. 

“Come on, little guy, without my sister here we can really make it a guys night, how about that?”

Sealand looked up at the prince. He liked Princess Penny a lot. She told him stories and carried him around deck, but he also liked ‘guys nights’ where they ate more of the food than they should and ran around on the messiest parts of the deck and then tried to wash it off before their five minutes of allotted shower time where over. 

“Okay,” he finally agreed, even if he still couldn’t get rid of the strange feeling in his tummy. 

 

…:::*:::...

The strange feeling was what led Sealand to the landing pad before the large helicopter, different than the ones the prince and princess regents had left on, was even in view. His prince found him just a few minutes later, having been answering a radio signal from that same helicopter. 

“Don’t worry. It’s carrying a Telax from dad.”

“I’m not worrying!” Sealand put both hands on his hips to make himself look bigger. Prince Michael chuckled. 

The Prime Minister appeared beside them right before the helicopter came in for landing. Sealand shivered. The other thing about the Prime Minister was that Sealand couldn’t feel him. Not the way he could feel the princes and princesses. They were like warm lights inside of him and he knew so much about them and what they felt that he was sure he would burst. He had thought it was because the Prime Minister wasn’t actually part of the family, but for a moment some of the words the mean old mainland had told him on his only visit five years ago popped into his head. 

“Your… people, all ridiculous four of them that is, are your blood, your life, and your soul. They are part of you as much as you are part of them,”

He hadn’t really understood at the time, but now…

Sealand tugged on Prince Michael's sleeve just as the helicopter’s rotors stopped spinning. His prince shouted. Sealand felt a burst of surprise and then fear from him. He was too late. The Prime Minister was holding the prince in a headlock. 

“Let go of him!” He kicked the man’s shin, officially demoting him from Prime Minister to 'bad guy.'

“Sea- Peter! Go, you ha--” But Sealand never found out what he had to do because five men flooded out of the helicopter wearing dark clothing and angry faces. One of them ran forward and scooped up Sealand in his arms, holding him so that none of his limbs could kick out. 

“No!” He screamed. The man spoke over him in something that sounded like a lot of grunts and harsh sounds. Alexander the former Prime Minister answered back in the same way. 

“We’re coming quietly, don’t hurt the kid,” he heard the prince’s voice above both their heartbeats seemingly racing away in Sealand’s chest. 

“Follow us,” Alexander demanded.

Sealand could only half see as he was carried below deck, half his vision obstructed by the black shirt he was pressed against. He could never lose his way inside of himself, but it took even him a moment to recognize where they were going since that part of his home hadn’t been used in so long: the row of cells left over from before he was born, when he had been a military base. 

He heard a grunt and a curse before he was dropped and shoved forward. The heavy metal bars, rusted but still functional, slammed shut behind him. 

Sealand didn’t know if he felt scared or mad. His head felt all scrambled up and his stomach was still feeling strange but in a stronger painful way. It pulled inside of him like his insides wanted to be outside. To add to it the room was musty, air clinging to his hair and forehead and cotton clothing. Despite this, he was glad when the prince took him into his arms. 

“Are you alright, S-Peter?” he asked, shooting a sideways look at the men still at the bars. They seemed to be arguing with each other with their sounds. They kept looking and pointing at Sealand so he assumed he had something to do with it. That didn’t make him feel very safe. 

“I’m okay,” he decided, despite the pains. “Are you okay?” He asked urgently. He couldn’t let anything happen to his prince!

“I’m fine,” he forced out, moving to glare at the men now that he knew Sealand was okay. 

“Hey, arsemongers, whatever you want from this, it isn’t going to go your way. What happens when Bates comes back?”

“What’s he going to do? We’re already here, and if you’re lucky, you will be too,” Alexander replied.

Prince Michael scoffed and leaned back against the wall. 

“Wonderful, now I have to talk to traitors, too. You know, we haven't decided the law on revolutionaries yet. Guess we’ll have to figure it out when this is all said and done. Though I’m leaning towards beheading at the moment,”

“Yes, well the precedent set for laws involving dethroned ‘monarchy’ isn’t looking in your favor. So I’d stop now before we traumatize the… child.” Alexander drew the last word out while glancing at his partners. Sealand realized, for whatever reason, he wasn’t telling them the truth about him. That was good, he thinks. The mainland had told him something about keeping the secret contained. Now he’s thinking he should leave future prime ministers out of it. 

The men left the room before much more could be said and Prince Michael sighed and moved to sit on the dusty floor. Sealand copied the movement, coughing a bit in the process. 

“It’ll be alright. Dad will come for us as soon as they realize what’s for.”

Sealand nodded, still able to feel the distant warmness of the prince and princess in his stomach, even if he couldn’t sense exactly where they were. 

…:::*:::...

Sealand's stomach growled again. It had been a whole day and nobody had been by to feed them. His stomach was clenching in both pain from before, like it was going to tear itself apart, and new hunger pains. His eyes were permanently wet in fear and Prince Michael would place a worried hand on his forehead every once in a while. 

“You’re warm. These conditions aren’t healthy for a young boy.” Then the prince’s stomach would usually rumble as well. For some reason, Sealand didn’t think the conditions were the reason for his own sickness but didn’t say anything. 

…:::*:::...

It had been two days since the takeover. Some guards had been by, but no one had passed them any food or water. Their lips were dry and cracking and the prince told him to just lie down and try to sleep. He also was not allowed to go to the bathroom anymore because the prince said they had to conserve water. 

“What… what happens to your kind if-- can you d… get hurt from not having enough water?”

“England didn’t tell me,” he rasped out. The entire room was blurry and his skin felt really cold to him even though Prince Michael said it was too hot. His stomach tried again to jump out and Sealand thought he wouldn’t be able to get up even if he was allowed to try. 

“It’ll be alright.” The prince’s stomach rumbled. 

…:::*:::...

The third day after the takeover Sealand threw up, luckily making it to the small old toilet. The thing didn’t flush anymore, though, so the scent of sick was stuck in the thick air anyway. 

He could barely see anything anymore and his muscles felt like the slop they ate when the shipment boats were late. The thought made his stomach growl again. He stumbled over to the sleeping prince and crawled onto his lap. 

“Shhh, try not to cry, you’ll lose water. Shhh,” he awoke and carded a hand through Sealand’s hair like Princess Penny used to. Another sharp pain came from his stomach. 

He wondered if this was dying, not from thirst or starvation, he thought, but from something not found in any medical book.

…:::*:::...

“Oi!”

Sealand blearily opened his eyes at the shout. Then he sat up in alarm. It caused the whole room to shift and spin and he almost threw up again before he could focus. Prince Michael was being carted out of the room by two men holding him up by the arms. 

“Let go of me!”

Sealand struggled to his feet and managed to hit one of the man’s legs. He kicked Sealand away and Sealand landed in a heap. Another man came in and grabbed Sealand by the arms. He sniffled, half in his own pain and half in the drowning panic and fear and hunger and thirst he could feel coming from his prince. 

“Let go of him, you nonce! Where are you taking us?” Prince Michael’s voice was scratchy and his eyes weren’t focusing. 

Sealand saw that Alexander was waiting outside the bars. One of the men spoke to him in the language the prince had told him was German. As he spoke he gestured at Sealand and Alexander shook his head. The message was clear: ‘he stays’. The man looked upset about this but continued anyway. 

“No.” Sealand could feel the tears running down his face. 

“What are you going to do with him?!” was the last thing he heard from the prince before the clanging of a door further down the hall blocked him off. 

The man holding Sealand let go and he left the cell, locking him in again. Alexander stayed until they heard the door again. 

“Looks like the little country is all mine.”

…:::*:::...

The next day he was given a small bowl of water. His hands were shaking so much that he drank it off the floor instead of trying to lift it. His stomach was starting to feel better, though, and that made him worry. Did it mean it was over? The feeling of his royal family was still there, and he was happy prince Michael was still okay, but it was weaker than ever. He turned over and fell back into a fevered sleep. 

…:::*:::...

A few days later, after a few sparsely delivered meals and drinks, the stomach pain that had mostly faded started up again suddenly. It happened at the same time that the feelings of both prince’s bloomed warm and the sound of helicopter rotors sounded even way down where he was, or maybe that was just his awareness of the space inside his country. He instinctively knew what was happening on deck.

The whole thing was as fast and sudden as the takeover. Prince Michael fired a few shots and the traitors were lining up to surrender within minutes.

For the first time in days, Sealand smiled. 

…:::*:::...

“Sealand!” Princess Joan’s arms wrapped around him as he took in the fresh air of the deck around him. Princes Michael and Bates each had a hand on his shoulder and Princess Penny was ruffling his hair from behind. “I’m so glad to see you’re alright. When Michael told us how you had been… oh, we were just so worried!” She pulled back and put a hand against his forehead. Sealand knew she wouldn’t find anything, though, his fever was gone and so was the strange feeling in his tummy. All he could feel was the waves of relief and fierce happiness coming from the people around him. 

The traitors were all down in the cells, and representatives from Germany were coming to negotiate their release (real representatives from a whole ’nother country!). Former Prime Minister Alexander was a citizen of Sealand, though, and he would be charged under their laws. Sealand hadn’t exactly decided what that was yet, but he was sure they would think of something suitable. 

“I’m okay,” he threw his arms around his family. He had been tried as a real country for the first time since his birth and had come back on top and stronger. His people had come back for him and fought for him, and he knew, whatever the mainland said, that made him as real a country as any of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Researching this coup, It actually sounds pretty scary for Prince Micheal. All that stuff about starving him in the dark is true. So is him (or was it his father? I did the research a long time ago) shooting a machine gun from a helicopter to take back Sealand. Turns out the first royal family of Sealand was actually kind of badass? Go figure.


End file.
